Airman Found 62 Years After Crash

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Airman Found 62 Years After Crash

By: Legacy Staff

4 years ago

In November 1952, when a U.S. military cargo plane crashed on a remote mountain in Alaska, buried beneath snow and ice, Sgt. James H. Ray and 51 other service members died. The sudden loss devastated dozens of families, unable to say goodbye or lay their loved ones to rest. For Sgt. Ray’s family, that loss was made all the more poignant by the birth of his first daughter three months later. Named for her father, Jamie Ray Swift grew up without her father, and as reported by the Los Angeles Times, knowing little about him, as her mother “never, ever talked about him.”

That changed recently, when melting snow and a chance observation by a pilot passing near the crash site revealed the location of the wreckage. So far, 17 bodies have been recovered and identified. Among them was Sgt. Ray, whose remains have been returned to his family. Swift plans to bury her father in Pennsylvania where the rest of his family is buried, bringing his final mission to a close nearly 62 years later.